Unity game software..anyone?

[ShinGamix 1]

Has anyone around these forums used Unity. I was thinking about testing it out and maybe buying it.

[madanchi 18]

I havn't but you've just reminded me that I've got a fully licensed version of Unity that I never used. I'll get testing soon.

 

Edit: Righty I've tried and tested it out a little, fairly straight forward and easy to use. Should be fun to sue when I get stuck into it. No idea how much you know so I've gone ahead and provided a few links below which should really give you a kick start.

 

Full help list: http://docs.unity3d....ents/index.html

Creating a Terrain: http://docs.unity3d....ngTerrains.html

Terrain Editing List: http://docs.unity3d....pt-Terrain.html

GUI List: http://docs.unity3d....eringGroup.html

 

Extra Terrain Assets: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/assets/terrain-assets

("It contains: 12 trees, 12 bushes, 6 grass types and 22 terrain textures.")

Edited October 26, 2012 by madanchi

[RageMage 5]

I use it, I would recommend sticking with the free license, at least until you get comfortable with it. There's very little extra that you actually get with the pro license you can check on the site and compare license's to see what all there is, most of which is things you'll likely not use. If you're looking to do console game development then you'll need more than just the pro license, you'll actually need the console license from unity to port your game to which ever console you want to develop for.

Even with a free license you can create and release commercial games using it that you can legally sell, and since it's likely that you'll end up creating most of your assets yourself the pro version wouldn't be as big of a deal for you.

 

I was planning to post some tutorials for it later on if you're interested in that. Someone actually bought me a pro license for it yesterday so I'll be using that, yay for friends with money. I'm still likely going to stick with the standard assets and the free downloadable assets from the unity site, for the tutorials I do anyways.

 

I really like this engine and would strongly recommend everyone who wants to do game development get it at the very least the free license. If more people show an interest in it I may look to start a group project using Unity just to see what we can come up with.

[ShinGamix 1]

Do you have to know programming to use it?

[RageMage 5]

From a designers stand point, no. That being said if you intend to work on anything by yourself and actually get a good game completed you will have to have some programming knowledge, be it Java script or C#. If you are serious about game development then you should be ready, willing, and excited to learn to program; many designers and artist in game development have at least a basic understanding of programming, not that it's required but it is helpful.

 

I highly recommend C# for use with Unity, that's just my opinion as I'm biased to dislike, loathe, and hate Java. The reasons I recommend C# over Java is that if you feel you'd like to try game programming away from a heavily graphic based design interface and rather work on some small games as a programmer you have the option to use XNA, which in all honestly is what I would use while learning C# anyways.

 

If you are die hard serious about game development and intend to work in professional game development studios programming is almost definitely a must, not really required but a skill that is helpful to have.

 

So if you just intend to do only the design and graphics for the game then no you don't have to know how to program, but if you are planning to do everything required of the game such as implementing combat, character classes, targeting, and anything else required of a your game then yes you will need to know on of the languages mentioned before.

 

There is also a multitude of resources out there for Unity including some scripts that you can import in and use as needed, though using them is a lot different that putting a script in with RMXP.

 

A little off topic, I would like to start putting up tutorials but I think I may do it a bit differently than your standard tutorial post, instead I'd like to hear what others would like for me to cover and I'll do my best to cover it as fully as possible. I'd rather not cover scripting for awhile since that will be a bit more advanced that the basics of setting up a scene. Send me a PM on what I should cover in my first Unity tutorial, if you have to use scripts to do it I'll let you know in PM and cover it later on, lets keep it simple and basic.

[ShinkuAura 15]

I've used it. i love unity you can design a lot of stuff with it.

If you got 3DS Max, Maya Or even Blender you can make a pretty good game. of course you do need a lot of resources but the Unity engine is great it is not limited in anyway. Maybe the graphics aren't so polished but everything easy to use you just need to know how.

[RageMage 5]

Yeah I think the graphics look pretty nice, most of the time you wont be much of the assets that comes with Unity and be creating your own in what ever 3D program you choose, I don't much care for the rocks and boulders that come in Unity if they set on an elevation you can see up into them, back face culling so you can see right through them.

 

Unity is among the only game engine that I've see that was designed to be useful in development of any game genre, most engines are built for 1 genre like the Unreal Engine was designed with FPS in mind, without editing the engine itself Unreal would be a bad choice for an RPG or RTS.

So yeah Unity is very much not limited, as far as getting the most pristine graphics that really depends on the 3D designer and the production settings you set within a project, you can get some very pretty graphics if you have the PC that can handle it.

If you're looking for a bunch of plug and play scripts made for Unity to make a game in minutes, you're out of luck. You'll have to make them yourself or find someone else that will, programming is part of game development. Without scripting all you will have is a pretty landscape. That's a start, but it's far from the next best seller game of the year.

 

I'm sorry if I'm just beating a dead horse here but I have talked to many people that want to use Unity and do everything themselves but don't want to do any scripting, they end up with an outstanding landscape and the little 1st person camera object, that comes with unity, running around jumping off cliffs and they think that they have a game, call it "Safari Tour - Wheres the Animals". To have a game you will have to script.

[madanchi 18]

Can always download a fair few free assets from the Asset Store to get you started. The only thing i'm having an issue with is lightmapping, not sure why but the 'Preview' is blank and renders nothing.